COLYMBUS ADAMSII. 
WHITE-BILLED LOON. 
COLYMBUS ADAMSII. G. B, Gray. Proc. Zool. Soc. (1859), p. 167. 
The various species composing this genus are shy, retiring birds, inhabiting the more secluded streams and inland waters of our 
land, where they breed and rear their youug, departiug for the Sea-board only when their retreats have become frozen over by the 
chill breath of winter. What person, who has ever encamped, in the summer time, upon the shore of some one of our beautiful lakes 
lying deep within the t silent woods, does not remember seeing a large bird swimming slowiy along, disappearing at intervals beneath 
the surface of the water, and usually emerging with a fish in its bill, the spoil of its successful pursuit after the finny prey? At 
intervals it gives utterance to its cry, so plaintive and sad in tone, that it seems as though it came from some person in distress, and 
to cause even the virgin forest which surrounds its abode to appear more lonely. Should the bird discover any strange object, 
which it is very quick to do, as its watchful eye is ever scanning the limits of its retreat, the body is immersed deeper into the 
water, to atfect concealment, and a few quick short notes are heard, like a mocking laugh, as it gradually increases its distance from 
that which has excited its suspicion. It dives frequently and with great rapidity, and is capable of remaining under water for a 
considerable length of time. When desirous of taking flight, it rises with difficulty, beating the surface of the lake with both feet 
and wings, for some distance, and, gaining the level of the surrounding w r oods by repeated circling of its watery limits, determines its line 
of flight, and is soon lost to sight behind the intervening forest. This bird is the Great Northern Diver, well known to every frequenter 
of the wilderness, and to which the present species bears a strong resemblance; and although the White-Billed Loon is a native of 
the more northern lakes and Watters, rarely, if ever, coming far to the southward, yet we can have little doubt but that its habits 
are the same, and that its plaintive note is often heard in those far-olf wilds, and its mocking laugh often greets the intruder who 
ventures near its abode. 
Like its relative, it feeds on fish, which it pursues beneath the surface, and water is its native clement, as it rarely comes upon 
the laud unless for the purpose of incubation. 
This fine species was first made known to Ornithologists by Mr. Gray, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 
as above quoted, and named after Mr. Adams, Surgeon of EL M. S. Enterprise, commanded by Captain Gollinson, in the voyage 
through Behring's Straits. It resembles the Colymbus Glaclalis (Great Northern Diver), but its great white bill will always serve to 
distinguish it from that species. 
My figure was taken from a very fine specimen received at the Smithsonian Institution from Arctic America. 
